Now reading: Knausgaard on Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov www.newyorker.com/books/second...

IU killed my and many other departments and area studies units. But they will spend however much money it takes to partner with the world destroying plagiarism machine!

Reupping this for today, the sixth anniversary of David Berman's death. A really tough listen, but beautiful, full of love and care. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...

If you're a learner or new reader of Greek or Syriac, or if you teach Greek or Syriac, try out the Pearlsong! In Greek, there's both a late ancient prose text and a Byzantine paraphrase (in a homily); in Syriac, it's a 105-line poem. Glossaries for both languages are included. Open-access PDF:

Just realized Kirsopp Lake, the gentleman who edited and translated Eusebius’s Ecclesiastical History in the Loeb series, is the namesake for “The Lake House” in Brooklyn Nine-Nine. And they say Early Christianity is irrelevant??

Zinnias and zucchinis. The bees are out strong this AM.

Alcaraz is unbelievable

“I don’t know how long it took—ten seconds, maybe fifteen—for the house to come apart." During the early-morning hours of July 4, the Guadalupe River pulled senior editor Aaron Parsley and six members of his family into its waters. Read his firsthand account:

God, this is some of the most harrowing, heart-rending writing I’ve ever read. Read it when you’re ready. Just devastated for this beautiful family, for all these families.

Come study with us! Fully-funded Ph.D. scholarship opportunity to work on the Late Antique translation of texts. www.acu.edu.au/research-and...

Here’s a bee taking care of our cucumbers this AM

Open-access PDF available here! The Pearlsong is the first in a new series of books (Texts & Translations of Transcendence & Transformation – 4T), all with source language and parallel Eng. tr., all avail. in a high-quality hard copy and open-access PDF. Much more to come!

It's publication day for the Pearlsong! Syriac and two Greek texts, each w/ Eng. tr., + glossaries and commentary. Just $40! The paper, cover & jacket, and printing are fabulous! If you read it, I hope you have as much fun with it as I did writing it!

Now that the contract is signed, I'm very pleased to announce that this book--A Guide to Preaching and the Homiletic Genre in Late Antique Syriac Literature, co-edited by myself and @philipforness.bsky.social, will finally be making its way to publication, either at the end of 2025 or early 2026.

I am delighted to announce the IRCI has 2 job openings in early Christianity (specialisation open, research-focus, early career). Closing date 15 Aug. Contact me with any questions. We hope you'll consider joining our excellent group of scholars! candidate.aurion.cloud/acu/producti...

Susan Harvey's long-awaited book on Syriac women's choirs is up on the @ucpress.bsky.social website! and it will be Open Access!! www.ucpress.edu/books/minist...

Checkin’ out the cucumbers

Great opportunity for those who would like to learn Coptic!

Sad. RIP.

Free Workshop: Digital Encoding for Syriac Studies Syriaca.org invites applications for a virtual workshop on “Digital Encoding for Syriac Studies” on Tuesday, July 29th and Thursday, July 31, 2025. For details and registration information, see blog.syriaca.org/2025/06/digi...

RIP

This little guy was scouting some peaches

Tonight:

Very late to reading Susan Sontag and I’m ashamed of myself.

So I am writing a bit on manuscripts and early modern Maronites and I came across a treatise titled “A Discourse on Coffee: Its Description and Vertues,” by the Maronite scholar Faustus Naironus (d. 1711). I need to find a way to cite this in my dissertation.

It’s nice to be back in the Big Apple, the city that never sleeps, the empire city— Chicago, IL

This Friday I'm doing a short Zoom workshop on adjectives in Syriac. Join us if you want to get to know adjective forms & functions in Syriac, the most frequently met adjectives, and a list of opposites – or just to read lots of fun phrases from Syriac literature! More details 👇

Cucumber plants are showing signs of life!

BNF Syriaque 341 is beautiful and rare illuminated Syriac manuscript. Well worth a look. It is really wonderful to have online access to such treasures!! More on the Moses and Aaron image, with some useful context and bibliography: antiquitebnf.hypotheses.org/16363 gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/b...

I think an anthology of translated Syriac poetry translate would be a really neat resource. Spanning genres and ranging from Cyrillona, Ephrem, Isaac, Jacob, narsai, to Syriac Apocryphal Psalms, and to Elijah of Anbar, Bar Hebraeus, Giwargis Warda, Khamis bar Qardahe, etc etc etc.

Our backyard smells glorious because of this jasmine and honeysuckle. And the bees make for quite the show.

A bunch of the best book publishers in the world lost critical funding from the NEA last night. Not a surprise, but nonetheless a moment for all of us to figure out what we can do to help keep these publishers going over the next few years.

I’ve put together a list of funding sources for graduate students in biblical studies and early Christianity. Most of these are only available to students in the U.S. but many of them don’t have citizenship requirements. docs.google.com/document/d/1...

RIP catenists, you would’ve loved journaling bibles.

I just registered for what will (hopefully) be my last semester of dissertation research. Here’s to writing!

My main aspiration is to be worthy of becoming a minor episodic character in a Patrick Leigh Fermor travelogue

When in Boston:

This looks terrific.

For about the last five years, I have been working on the translation and translation cultures of Christian communities in late antiquity, seeking especially to bring together the Latin and Greek evidence with that found in eastern Christian languages. The first two articles have finally appeared.

Four-year postdoc in Syriac studies in Vienna. Join my team in the FWF START Project "Generative Authority: The Followers of the Apostles as Literary Characters," genaut.univie.ac.at/ Deadline June 1st. Happy to respond to any inquiries! @fwf-at.bsky.social @univie.ac.at

It’s a good day when you get to cite a friend in your dissertation

“If you take away a gnat / from creation, you diminish [creation].” Mar Isaac, Memra on the Natural Composition of Humanity

Excited for this in a couple of weeks.

The bees love this honeysuckle bush

Trump's NEH has, it seems, just cancelled a bunch of fellowship programs with deadlines in the next couple of weeks. A brief thread: 1/ Awards for Faculty at Tribal Colleges and Universities has been cancelled for FY 2026 www.neh.gov/grants/resea...

Mood

Wednesday music open.spotify.com/track/5Fse8B...

It’s a Ralph Stanley kind of day ://open.spotify.com/track/4fLrqfArtp3dltUixmWHUA?si=LKZmiCE-RIisZzOCUGzuZw